Real or Not
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Real or not, she was the woman for him. Het.


Title: "Real or Not"  
Author: Kat Lee  
Rating: G  
Summary: Real or not, she was the woman for him.  
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.  
Author's Note: 244. That's the number of stories that were sitting on my hard drive collecting dust because I lack the energy and time to take care of them as I once did. My betaing pattern has always been to write, then type up if written on paper, the story, read it aloud to my beloved Jack and our children, editing as I go, and then finally format and post. Sadly, this part is simply taking too much of my time and energy, and my beloved Jack and I have too little time together in person these days to be able to keep up with my stories. So what to do? Give up writing? I actually considered it for a while, tried to make excuses to myself other than the large number of stories collecting cyber dust on my computer, as to why I lacked the energy and Muse to write new tales. And then, with the turn of the new year, I decided to stop running and face the problem. The problem is, quite frankly, that once one gets so bogged down in formatting and editing that writing is no longer a pleasure but the actual posting of those writings becomes a hassle and - egad! - work, it's time to cut something out, and that will never be the writing process. So, in short, yes, there will be mistakes in this tale. Yes, it's missing about half of the header information I usually include. But I wrote it for pleasure and am posting it in hopes of sharing that pleasure with others. Do with it as you will.

He was crazy, and he knew it. He had never been the sanest individual, but lately, since he'd come down to these Virginia hills, Kyle's sanity had been slipping even more. Now, as he stared at the latest woman to captivate his attention, the mutant called Wildchild had to admit that what sanity he had once had had to be gone.

It wasn't that she wasn't pretty. The woman was beautiful with her dark, chocolate skin and golden, yellow hair. She was equally beautiful on the inside, so it wasn't as though she was a snide bitch like some of the other women to catch Kyle's attention in the past. She was kind, generous, and dangerous, and Kyle loved a woman who could kick butt as well as he could and still have a huge heart.

Shard was definitely that kind of a woman, but in that was the problem: She was, or would be, that kind of woman. Though she appeared to stand before him, Kyle knew she was not even alive. The being who smiled before him while cleaning her gun was not real. Her parents were not even thought of yet, let alone the woman herself. She wouldn't be for years to come.

Shard glanced up. Her eyes met his, and Kyle found he had to look away as his heartbeat sped up. _She isn't real,_ he reminded himself again. _She isn't real, and even if she was, she wouldn't look at you._

But if she wasn't real, a small part of his illogical brain argued, how did she hold a gun? How did she fight? How did she feel so solid when she brushed against him, or pushed him out of the line of fire in battle?

But she wasn't real, he reminded himself again with a soft, frustrated growl. She was only a hologram, brought to life by her brother's memory, a hologram whom he had deserted and sent to Forge to figure out how it was she seemed so real and spoke her own mind.

Kyle zeroed in on his advanced senses. He inhaled the deep, rich mountain air. His ears twitched. His heart fell. He could smell the mountain, the grass, the distant ocean, the lead of weaponry, and every animal on the land and bird in the air. He could smell all of his team mates except one. She might feel real, but Shard wasn't real. She had no scent.

He wondered what she would smell like. Every person had their own unique scent that carried wafts of their personality with it. Would she be sweet, or tangy? Sweet, he thought, stealing another, sideways glance at the hologram, sweet with a wild air and a taste of lead from her gun.

He wished he could smell her. Something deep within Wildchild growled as he imagined what it would feel and smell like to be able to bury his face in Shard's hair, run his claws through it, and fill his nose with her aroma.

It would never happen, he told himself yet again. Shard was completely unaware of him as anything more than a friend and team mate. He doubted the hologram even understood the difference between a male and female. He'd like to imagine it would be different if they'd lived in the same time, but he knew he'd be fooling himself if he ever believed it to be a true possibility. A woman like her wouldn't look at a guy like him. She'd be as unresponsive as a robot, or as the hologram she was now.

"Kyle?"

"Hmm?" His whole being perked up the instant she spoke to him. _Cool it, boy. She's a hologram,_ he told himself, but his ears still pricked forward, feral eyes gleamed, fangs showed in his grin, and his heart thundered with hope.

"I understand," Shard tried to speak but fizzled. She reappeared a second later and continued, "I heard of a large musical gathering happening in this city this weekend, Kyle. I would like to experience your time's music but do not wish to go alone."

Kyle stared at her. "Are you asking me out on a date?" he questioned, not daring to hope.

"A date?" She fizzled out again and then reappeared once more. "I am not sure what this 'date' thing is."

_Yup,_ Wildchild thought glumly as she broke up yet again, _she's as clueless as a robot._

"But I would like you to go with me," Shard paused, then continued carefully, "if you are not busy and do not have other plans?"

At that moment, all of Kyle's reasonings as to why he should not like this woman went straight out of the proverbial window along with the rest of the sanity he claimed. He whooped and hollered his delight. He threw his head back and howled his joy. The sound resonated through the hills.

Shard fizzled repeatedly in and out while all of this was going on. Then, at last, her image stayed strong. She smiled at Wildchild, and he howled again. "I take it that is a 'yes'?" the "living" hologram asked.

"Lady," Kyle remarked, grinning from ear to ear with his fangs gleaming, "you understand howls pretty well."

Her smile almost seemed shy. "I would like to understand them better."

He gazed into her yellow eyes for a long moment, and then he said, "I think you will. One of these days, Shard, when you can stay solid, I think you will." Once more, he howled out the happiness bursting through his heart as she smiled warmly at him. Hologram or not, she was real for him, and she was his mate.

**The End**


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